CTC - MTB Bikes (Mountain Biking)

The CTC and DMR competition to win the ultimate pump track bike has been won by 13 year old Ed Bartley from Bristol.
DMR team rider Olly Wilkins judged the competition this week after the prize was showcased on the CTC stand at the NEC Cycle Show last week.

Olly, who is competing this week with the DMR team& said “I sat down and shared the drawings with my friends who are fellow riders and we came up with Ed’s design.”

Nick, Ed’s dad told us he couldn’t wait to tell his 13 year old son when he came home from school today.

It happens every year, yet virtually everyone seems to get caught out by it. The September equinox indicates the fastest point of shortening days in the year. So within a handful of weeks, you go from wearing shorts and beautiful light evenings, through sunsets to setting out in the dark.

Sometimes it's a depressing thought, the nights closing in. However, night riding is also to be relished as one of the most rewarding experiences you can have on a bike, and especially when riding with a group. Riding in the dark heightens your senses, improves your skills and builds awareness. Of course, mix this in with starry or moonlit nights, or deep fog, and the whole experience becomes amazing. Perhaps this night riding video from CTC Instructor Trainer

Aston Hill Bike Park celebrated 16 years as one of the South’s Premier Mountain Bike destinations with a day’s racing on the Parks infamous Black Run Downhill and the opening of a new Pumptrack funded by Cycle Chilterns.

The new Pumptrack compliments the 5 downhill trails, a 4X track and the 5 mile Cross-Country Trails already on Aston Hill providing a much needed facility for younger riders visiting Aston Hill to get into mountain biking. That’s not to say that the Pumptrack is just for kids and it was great to see riders of all ages and abilities putting in laps of the track on the opening evening.

There are events, events and more events coming up over the next couple of months and Cycle Chilterns will be supporting lots of them!

It's a packed end to the cycling season with a number of local club events in the calendar. Cycle Chilterns will be supporting these in a number of ways, as well as attending a variety of other local events offering a range of activities.

For a fun outing for all the family, explore the beautiful Ashridge Estate in the Chilterns.

Set in the heart of the Chilterns is National Trust site, Ashridge Estate. Boasting a huge area of woodlands and downland, it’s free to explore and a great place for cycling with the whole family. You can enjoy bluebells in the spring, beautiful golden colours in the autumn, or spot a fallow deer and other wildlife.

CTC MTB has teamed up with Urban Design Specialists DHUD, DMR Bikes and the Cycle Show, the UK’s number one cycling exhibition to capture your ideas and potential opportunities for the development of a pump track project.

Calling all budding trail designers and dirt riders!

Here is a chance to turn your fantasy trail design into reality.

If you ride at your local bike park and you reckon you could have come up with some better ‘berms’ and ‘rollers ’ then have a go at designing your own.

CTC, the national cycling charity’s MTB trail consultancy team has linked up with Urban Design Specialists DHUD, DMR Bikes and the Cycleshow, the UK’s number one cycling exhibition to capture your ideas and potential opportunities for the development of a pump track.

The one day Oxfordshire County and Thame Show sizzled away under bright blue skies as the temperature climbed into the 30s. A great excuse for a day out and a busy show meant lots of visitors coming to find out more about Cycle Chilterns and have a go on the Shoretrax Portable Timber Trail.

CTC’s Sara Randle, Cycle Chilterns project manager, says, “With lots of information to give out to visitors, it was a very busy day for the project staff. Cycle Chilterns is in its first year and sees these shows as a great way to get to meet people and tell them about the exciting opportunities for cycling that we are promoting across the Chilterns.

"There are so many superb places in the Chilterns to enjoy on your own, with the family or with friends and going by bike is a brilliant way of exploring it all.”

Seven years of dedication, persistence and hard work by a group of mountain bikers and volunteers results this weekend in the opening of the Tidworth Freeride Bike Park in Wiltshire (Saturday 15 June).

The Bike Park, which features seven trails for riders of all ages and abilities, numerous jumps, drops and berms, has already been attracting enthusiasts, both civilians and the forces at the nearby garrison towns.

With the future of the site put in the balance by concerns that the trails on site were too challenging, CTC, the national cycling charity stepped in to support Tidworth Freeride and now welcomes the Park to the CTC Bike Park Network. It joins four others in the charity’s partnership mountain bike sites across the UK.

The Innerleithen Uplift project has been in the pipeline for a while now, and, like all of these projects, there are many unforeseen challenges and hurdles. The guys at AimUp have their eyes set on a big prize though, and the Tweed Love Bike Festival was a good time to catch up on progress.

From the programme for the Tweedlove Bike Festival 2013

Tweed Love fired a few questions over to AimUp, to see how progress is going towards the planned bike uplift…